Browse regulations

Federal program offering inflation-protected savings bonds to U.S. citizens, combining fixed rates with CPI-U adjustments, with 30-year maturities and specific redemption rules including 3-month interest penalties for early withdrawal within 5 years.

This represents government interference in personal savings markets, distorting interest rates and creating moral hazard by offering inflation protection that masks true economic costs, while the compliance costs and bureaucratic overhead far exceed any public benefit.

Regulation 31 CFR Part 205 governs the mechanics of federal fund transfers to states for federal assistance programs, establishing mandatory Treasury-State agreements, prescribed funding techniques, clearance pattern calculations, and interest liability formulas. It applies to major programs listed in the CFDA, requiring states to minimize timing gaps between federal receipt and payout, maintain auditable records, and comply with detailed procedures including dollar-weighted average clearance calculations and annual reconciliations.

This regulation imposes excessive federal micromanagement over state fiscal operations, creating high compliance costs through complex formulas, uniform procedures, and burdensome recordkeeping. The unseen costs—erosion of federalism, stifled state innovation, and administrative overhead—far outweigh any standardization benefits. States could negotiate simpler, tailored agreements directly with federal agencies without this sprawling CFR mandate that expands the administrative state and violates Tenth Amendment principles.

This regulation establishes detailed procedures for the Treasury Department to collect debts owed to the United States, including administrative offset, wage garnishment, tax refund offset, and other collection methods. It includes notice requirements, interest and penalty assessments, hearing rights, and procedures for compromise, termination, and cross-servicing with the Financial Management Service.

This elaborate regulatory regime for internal government debt collection imposes significant bureaucratic costs and contributes to the 185,000-page Code of Federal Regulations. While debt collection is a legitimate government function, the detailed procedural mandates create unnecessary administrative overhead, encourage mechanistic enforcement over equitable discretion, and could be replaced with simpler procedures that still protect due process through existing constitutional and statutory frameworks. The regulation exemplifies the bureaucratic expansion that distorts incentive structures and raises costs without improving outcomes.

This regulation establishes a comprehensive hazardous chemical communication program for mines, requiring operators to identify hazardous chemicals, create written HazCom programs, provide container labels and MSDSs, train miners on chemical hazards, and implement trade secret protections. It applies to all mines with varying compliance dates based on size, and includes detailed requirements for labeling, safety data sheets, training, and information disclosure to miners and health professionals.

This regulation creates massive compliance costs for mining operations while providing minimal safety benefits. The extensive paperwork requirements (MSDSs, written programs, labeling) duplicate existing safety practices and OSHA standards. The trade secret provisions create unnecessary legal complexity. Market forces and industry standards already incentivize chemical safety without federal micromanagement, and states can handle miner protection more efficiently than one-size-fits-all federal mandates.

Regulation 29 CFR Part 1953 outlines procedures for states to modify their federally-approved occupational safety and health plans. It classifies changes (developmental, federal program, evaluation, state-initiated), mandates notifications and supplements, and describes OSHA's review to ensure state programs remain at least as effective as federal standards.

The regulation imposes administrative burdens on states and reinforces a federal regulatory floor that prohibits state experimentation with lower-cost safety policies. Its unseen costs include bureaucratic delays, entrenchment of the OSHA administrative state, and perpetuation of command-and-control mandates that increase compliance expenses, especially for small businesses.

This regulation establishes procedures for OSHA access to personally identifiable employee medical information, requiring written access orders approved by a Medical Records Officer, limiting use to necessary purposes, and imposing strict security, retention, and disclosure protections. It primarily governs OSHA's internal conduct rather than imposing new obligations on employers.

This regulation protects Fourth Amendment privacy rights by constraining government power, not burdening private enterprise. It prevents OSHA fishing expeditions through sensitive medical data while preserving legitimate safety investigations. The minimal bureaucratic overhead on the agency is a necessary price for safeguarding individual liberty against arbitrary government intrusion—a core conservative principle. Deleting it would eliminate all procedural protections, enabling widespread privacy violations without accountability.

CSOSA collects DNA samples from individuals under its supervision who have been convicted of qualifying D.C. offenses and submits them to the FBI's CODIS database. The regulation specifies 46 serious offenses (murder, sexual crimes, kidnapping, robbery, arson, etc.) and outlines procedures for collection, handling non-cooperation through administrative sanctions or criminal prosecution, and coordination with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

This DNA collection for convicted violent and sexual offenders serves a compelling state interest in solving crimes, identifying repeat offenders, and exonerating the innocent. The regulation is narrowly tailored to individuals already convicted through due process of serious offenses, minimizing liberty intrusions while maximizing public safety benefits that would be impossible to achieve otherwise at comparable cost. Repealing it would let dangerous offenders evade detection and leave victims without justice.

Federal regulation establishing a sex offender registry for DC through CSOSA, mandating registration, verification, and address change reporting for convicted individuals, with lifetime registration for Class A offenders and periodic verification.

Registry imposes lifelong barriers to housing/employment that destroy reintegration and increase recidivism; creates vigilante violence targets; unseen social costs exceed uncertain benefits; represents punitive monitoring beyond sentence, violating liberty principles.

This regulation implements the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) for the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) and District of Columbia Pretrial Services Agency (PSA), establishing specific procedural requirements for individuals filing claims for money damages against these agencies when employees cause injury, death, or property damage. It outlines who may file, required documentation (SF 95 form or written notification with precise dollar amount), submission requirements, 2-year statute of limitations, amendment procedures, agency investigation and settlement processes, 6-month decision timeline, and subsequent judicial review options.

Americans would be worse off without this regulation because it provides essential procedural clarity and due process for citizens seeking redress against government misconduct. The FTCA waives sovereign immunity—a fundamental check on government power—but without clear, accessible filing procedures, ordinary people would face overwhelming barriers to vindicating their rights. The standardized forms, explicit deadlines, designated filing offices, and transparent timelines ensure that claims are processed fairly and efficiently. Deleting this would force citizens to guess at procedures, risk dismissal on technicalities, and undermine accountability for government employees. The modest administrative burden on claimants is outweighed by the crucial function of enabling access to justice against one's own government—a cornerstone of the rule of law that Mises and Friedman would recognize as necessary to constrain state power.

Regulation sets minimum safety and security standards for private companies transporting violent state prisoners, covering employee screening, training, guard ratios, uniforms, restraints, notification requirements, and vehicle standards.

Federal overreach into state criminal justice function; compliance costs increase taxpayer burden and create barriers to entry that reduce competition; states can more efficiently set and enforce standards through contracts and liability; regulation duplicates existing tort and contract remedies and distorts market incentives.

This part establishes minimum internal control standards (MICS) for gaming operations on Indian land, defining hundreds of gaming-related terms, creating tiered compliance requirements based on revenue (Tier A: $1-5M, Tier B: $5-15M, Tier C: >$15M), mandating tribal internal control standards that meet or exceed federal ones, and requiring extensive independent CPA audits with unannounced observations and specific procedures. The regulation is currently suspended following a court decision in Colorado River Indian Tribes v. Nat'l Indian Gaming Comm'n.

This regulation violates constitutional federalism by imposing federal micromanagement on tribal gaming, an area that should be governed by tribal sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment. It creates an enormous compliance burden with prescriptive, detailed requirements that divert tribal resources from economic development to paperwork. The fact it was suspended by a federal court as ultra vires confirms it exceeds statutory authority. Tribal gaming regulatory authorities are fully capable of establishing appropriate internal controls without federal mandates; states regulate non-tribal gaming similarly without such intrusive federal oversight. The massive unseen costs include CPA fees, audit procedures, administrative overhead, and barriers to entry that protect large incumbent tribal operations from smaller competitors.

This regulation implements a fee structure for the manufactured housing program, requiring manufacturers to pay $100 per transportable section and providing annual payments to states with approved plans based on production and shipments.

This regulation creates a complex fee system that raises costs for manufactured housing production and distorts market incentives. The $100 per section fee directly increases housing costs for low-income Americans, while the state payment formulas create arbitrary geographic advantages. Manufactured housing should be subject to basic safety standards but not burdened with this bureaucratic fee structure that serves as a hidden tax on affordable housing.

Provides loan guarantees for Native Hawaiian families to access private financing for housing on Hawaiian Home Lands, addressing unique legal barriers to traditional mortgage lending due to restricted land ownership status.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it enables Native Hawaiian families to access private mortgage financing on lands where traditional collateral requirements cannot be met due to federal trust restrictions, creating housing opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable in these designated communities.

This regulation establishes the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant Program, which provides federal funding to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for affordable housing activities for Native Hawaiian families eligible to reside on Hawaiian Home Lands. The program includes development, rental assistance, housing services, management services, crime prevention, and model activities, with specific income eligibility requirements and a structured housing plan submission process.

This is a racially targeted federal housing program that creates separate but equal systems based on ancestry rather than individual merit. It violates constitutional equal protection principles by providing different treatment based on Native Hawaiian status, creates unnecessary bureaucracy through complex eligibility rules and housing plan requirements, and represents federal overreach into what should be state/local housing matters under the Tenth Amendment.

FHWA policies for design-build project approval under title 23 U.S.C., including procurement procedures, NEPA compliance, and contract administration requirements.

Federal highway design-build regulations represent regulatory overreach into state/local contracting methods, adding unnecessary bureaucratic compliance costs while duplicating existing state procurement laws.